


Ice Cream

by Curiosi_tea



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29625408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curiosi_tea/pseuds/Curiosi_tea
Summary: The very beginning of Din and Cobb’s relationship. It all started with an astronomy class, ice cream, and hockey.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	Ice Cream

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, I am obsessed with nerd!Din and jock!Cobb and this happened.
> 
> This was posted as the 300th fic under the Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth tag!!!! (Pretty proud of that!)

"Look, its not my fault you don't pay attention in class, Cowboy," Din laughed as he flipped the page of his notebook.

'Actually, it is,' Cobb thought with a light scoff.

And it really was as far as Cobb was concerned. It was entirely his fault for wearing that dorky NASA hoodie to every astronomy class every day. It was his fault for the way he pushed up his glasses every time he asked a question even if they weren't falling down. It was entirely his fault for deciding to be his partner that first week of class when he could have gone with any other person. It was most definitely his fault for making Cobb enjoy a class he was only taking for science credits.

All the little things he caught out of the corner of his eye - little smiles, quick glances he couldn’t help give in response. All the times he realized that Din’s chair was slightly closer than it was the class before. All the times he caught himself double checking the mirror before he left his apartment. That was all Din’s fault.

The professor’s voice drew him out of his thoughts. He was always almost upset when someone interrupted his thoughts, especially when his thoughts were about Din. If he were being honest, most of his thoughts these days were about Din. 

“Hey, Cowboy,” Din whispered with a nudge, still looking at the professor. Anybody else wouldn’t have even realized he had said anything at all. Cobb glanced at him quickly with a soft hum. “Did you want to get ice cream after?”

Cobb wished he could claim he didn’t stutter out his answer, but he did. All he could do after was lower his head to hide the red of his face. Din was glad for that - it meant Cobb couldn’t see the small smirk he couldn’t help at getting the answer he had wanted. 

After class, Din and Cobb sat on a bench, eating their strawberry and peach ice cream. Din happily jumped right into his explanations of what they had learned in class that day. Cobb listened as intently as he could, trying hard to not allow his mind to wander. He wondered if Din knew how soothing his voice was or if he was completely oblivious to the way his voice made Cobb feel. He was so focused on Din’s voice that it took Cobb a good twenty minutes to realize that this ice cream date was a study session. 

“Din?” he cut him off in the middle of a sentence he hadn’t really heard the words of. “Why are you helping me?”

Din ran a hand through his already messy dark hair and chuckled. “Well, you need help, right? I mean, I know you’ve been struggling with the class.”

“So, you feel sorry for me?” Cobb scoffed. He slouched a bit in his seat and huffed out a sigh, surprising himself at how he went from drastically happy to be with Din to being drastically upset.

“No,” Din said a little too quickly. He shifted on the bench, tucking one of his legs under his other, tossing his arm over the back of the bench so he could fully face Cobb. He sighed, realizing he had actually offended him. “Look, you’re a hockey player, right?”

Cobb nodded, still not really wanting to look at him.

“So, you’ve already made it clear you’re taking the class just for credits. But I actually really enjoy astronomy. Why not let me help you actually try to pass it?”

With a sigh Cobb turned and mirrored Din’s position. “Alright,” he sighed with a nod. “Yeah, fine. You’re right.”

With a smile, Din continued. And surprisingly to himself, Cobb actually began to retain the information.

\--------------------------------------------

As the semester passed, the ice cream dates continued. As Cobb’s grade in the class slowly became acceptable, they stopped being about studying and instead became just about each other. Cobb learned about Din’s son and Din listened to Cobb’s recounts of hockey games. 

“I’ve never actually been to a hockey game before,” Din laughed, taking another bite of his ice cream.

Cobb perked up with a smile. “You should come to the next one. We’re having a party afterwards since it’s the last one of the semester, you could come to that too.”

“I thought you didn’t like your teammates,” Din questioned.

“I don’t, but I’m expected to go to these parties.” 

“I’ll think about it,” Din reasoned. 

And think about it he did. The entire week leading up to the game. He sent far too many texts to his friends asking for their opinions, each of whom sent him messages back which stated something along the lines of “just do it.” So on Saturday evening he threw on his hoodie, grabbed his messenger bag, and headed out the door, calling out a “thank you” to Peli for babysitting on his way out.

He sat at the top of the bleachers, bundled up in his hoodie, wishing he had brought another jacket. He couldn’t help his smile when Cobb came out on the ice and he continued smiling the entire time, his eyes following Cobb closely. He understood nothing about the game, only really half understanding the terms Cobb had dropped when they would get ice cream. 

At the first break he watched as Cobb glanced around the seats before skating over towards him, waving his hand for Din to come down. Din chuckled and did as he asked and joined him at one of the doors leading onto the ice as Cobb took off his helmet.

“Enjoying the game?” 

“It’s cold,” Din remarked, forcing a chuckle from Cobb which in turn caused one from himself.

“Well yeah, it’s ice!” Cobb gave him a small look of pity before holding up a finger and skating away, leaving Din standing alone awkwardly. He was glancing around and hardly noticed when Cobb had returned, a black leather jacket and scarf in hand. “Here, now you won’t freeze to death.” He opened the door and handed the jacket to Din who took it thankfully.

He quickly put it on over his hoodie, pushing his hands deep into the pockets with a huff.

“Better?” Cobb asked with a laugh.

“Much, thank you.” Din attempted to ignore the new warmth on his face. 

“Here,” Cobb said quickly as he unfolded the red scarf and wrapped it around Din’s neck. “Now you’ll really be warm.”

They stood there for a long moment, both just basking in the moment. Din opened his mouth to say something else, not really knowing himself what he wanted to say. Well, he knew what he wanted to say, but he didn’t think that it was something Cobb wanted to hear. He was saved, however, when one of Cobb’s teammates called for him to rejoin the team. Cobb just gave a bright smile and a small wave as he turned and skated back.

The rest of the game passed much more comfortably. Din really tried to ignore the amount of Cobb’s cologne he could smell in the scarf. He more than once caught himself with his nose deep in the scarf before telling himself that it wasn’t right and he straightened his back and tried to focus on the game. He smiled brightly when there was down time in the game and Cobb would catch his eye and gave a small wave. 

When the game had ended Din waited outside as everyone cleared out of the rink, jacket and scarf in hand, leaning against a light pole near the curb. Cobb came outside, turned around talking to two of his teammates. He was in the middle of a laugh when he turned and saw Din. His loud laugh quickly turned soft along with his eyes and he gave the darker haired man a large grin. He excused himself from his group and made his way over to him.

“How was the game?”

“You just played it,” Din pointed out with a laugh. At Cobb’s glare he nodded, “I enjoyed it. Thank you for inviting me.”

“Thank you for coming,” Cobb returned easily. 

There was another moment of silence much like inside the rink. Neither really cared about the chill of the air or the late hour. They just wanted to stay there, staring into each other’s eyes.

At the sound of a car honking, Cobb jumped and turned towards the source to see his teammates in the car waiting for him. “I should-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Din said. “You go. You have a party to go to.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Cobb asked as Din handed him back his scarf and jacket.

“I’m sure. Parties aren’t really my scene. Plus Grogu is at home, I should get back to him.”

Cobb nodded and they said their goodbyes. “I’ll call you later,” Cobb shouted back to him as he got in the car. Din just nodded with a grin and waved him off before heading back to his apartment.

\------------------------------

Din was woken up by his phone ringing loudly. He had fallen asleep on the sofa after having fought to get Grogu to bed. He was still in his jeans and hoodie, and still just as exhausted as when he had sat down. He shushed his phone in a panic, knowing it would do nothing to actually help, just not wanting Grogu to wake up. He glanced at Cobb’s name across his screen.

“When people say ‘I’ll call you later,’ they typically mean at least the next day,” he grumbled when he picked.

He heard Cobb’s chuckle on the other end. “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you. And technically it is the next day.” He sounded almost as exhausted as Din felt.

Din hummed. “What time is it?” He glanced at the clock in the kitchen but his eyes were too blurry from sleep to read it. 

“It’s 1 am. I’m really sorry.” And he sounded really sorry too, which broke Din’s heart.

“It’s alright. Are you alright?” he asked in a hurry, finally awake enough to realize Cobb wouldn’t be calling so late unless he needed to.

“I’m alright.” Din sighed in relief. “But I do have a big favor to ask.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Is there any way you could come get me? Or call somebody to come get me?”

“What happened?” Din was back on edge. He could hear the frustration in Cobb’s voice.

“I just,” he sighed again, “I’ve had too much to drink to walk home, I don’t like the idea of asking someone here for a ride, and if I stay here any longer than I have to somebody is getting punched.”

Din was already up putting on his shoes. “What’s the address?”

The next few minutes passed in a blur. He quickly woke Grogu up enough to get his jacket and shoes on and get him into the car. The kid was out again seconds after his father buckled him in. Din drove as steadily as he could, trying not to panic or speed and failing at both. When he finally got to the house, he pulled up front and checked on Grogu before getting out and locking the doors, deciding he couldn’t and shouldn’t take him with him to the door. 

He rang the door bell and the door was quickly answered by a disheveled looking college student. “I’m here to get Cobb.”

The man looked him up and down and chuckled. He turned his head over his shoulder and called out, “Vanth, your boyfriend is here!” 

“Oh, no,” Din said quickly. “I’m just here to pick him up.”

“Hey, Darlin’,” Cobb slurred as he came to the door, wrapping his scarf around his neck. 

There were whistles from the other hockey players inside the house and Cobb just rolled his eyes and he pushed past the player at the door and throwing he arm over Din’s shoulders and he pulls him towards the car. 

Once they were inside and Din was pulling away, Cobb cleared his throat. “Thank you for getting me,” he whispered. He turned and glanced at Grogu still asleep in his car seat behind his dad. “I’m sorry, sometimes I forget you’ve got a little one.”

“It’s alright, he’s sleeping through it. He won’t even remember this in the morning,” Din answered honestly. They were silent for a moment before he pulled over and parked the car at a random curb. He turned and looked at Cobb who was looking extremely confused. “Did you tell your team we were dating?” 

“No, why?”

“Because they think we are,” Din spoke pointedly.

Cobb stuttered for a moment. “Aren’t we?” Din froze. When he received no answer, Cobb continued, “Weren’t all those ice cream study sessions dates?” 

“I-,” he paused and took a breath. “I didn’t think they were dates, did you think they were dates?”

“Well, yeah.” 

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for the first time ever. Neither knew what to say. Grogu made a frustrated sound behind them and they both turned towards him, concern on both their faces. Realizing he was still asleep, Din relaxed. He locked eyes with Cobb and chuckled. 

“So,” Cobb spoke softly, officially breaking the tension. “Since those apparently weren’t dates, would you like to get ice cream on Tuesday? 2:00?”

“As a date?”

“Yes, Din,” Cobb laughed, “as a date.”

Din hummed and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

\---------------------------------

Tuesday afternoon he spent hours pacing his apartment. Peli had taken Grogu around 1:00 to allow Din time to get ready. He had traded his NASA hoodie, which he realized Cobb had never not seen him in before, for a simple button down and a jacket. He kept going back to his hair, trying to make it perfect but the fluff wouldn’t settle down the way he wanted. 

Really what filled his mind was thoughts of Cobb. They hadn’t talked much since the night of the party. Din couldn’t help the thought that kept racing around his head, “Cobb was drunk when he asked him out.”  
He didn’t believe that Cobb, even drunk, would say something like that to him and not mean it. But he couldn’t help the doubt.

He sat on the sofa, his elbows on his knees, watching the time tick by. 

At 2:10, he felt his heart drop. He was seconds away from picking up his phone to call Peli when he heard a knock.

He opened the door to see a very out of breath Cobb standing in front of him. 

“Sorry, I know I’m late, I had to deal with something.” And by ‘something’ he meant he was also attempting to get his hair perfect. He looked Din over and smiled sadly. “You’re not wearing your hoodie.”

Din looked down at himself. “It’s a date. Aren’t you supposed to look nice for dates?”

“Well yeah, but,” Cobb paused and chuckled, “you just look so cute in your hoodie.”

“I can go put it on if you really want me to,” Din said with a laugh and a nod towards his room. 

“Nah,” Cobb shook his head, “you look really nice, just making me feel underdressed, is all.”

Din laughed and stepped out into the hallway, pulling his door shut and locking it. “Come on, Cowboy. Let’s go get ice cream.” 

He let Cobb toss his arm over his shoulders as they walked and all Din could think was how glad he was that the school required everyone to take a science class.


End file.
